Cuomo: 'I need to raise money to be competitive'

Cuomo and his daughters at the picnic. (Michael Farrell / Times Union)

Andrew Cuomo needs to be competitive — that’s why he raised $9.6 million in the last six months, taking contributions from unions, political action committees and lobbyists.

“This is a government that all too often responds to lobbyists, responds to special interests, and doesn’t respond to the people, and that’s what this campaign is about,” Cuomo told journalists at the Albany County Democratic Party’s annual picnic, before he was asked about his fundraising and the record $23.6 million he now has in his campaign war chest.

“I have to raise money to be competitive. I don’t have personal money. I did not make a lot of money, much to the chagrin of myself, but even more my daughters. I don’t have family money, so I can’t look to my family to support the campaign, so I have to raise money. My opponents will have money, and I need to raise money to be competitive, otherwise I can’t do any of the things I want to do,” he replied. (Cuomo was paid over a million dollars earlier this decade working for Island Capital.)

“Jimmy, one of the opponents is a multi-millionaire who has said he can put his hand in his own pocket and spend millions of dollars,” Cuomo said. “And if you don’t have the money to run a campaign you’re not competitive. And I don’t want to lose the campaign because I’m not competitive, so I had to raise the money. I don’t have family wealth, I don’t have personal wealth. And by the way: I don’t think politics should just be for millionaires. I don’t. But you have to raise millions, so I had to go out and reaise millions of dollars. People who donate to my campaign, the one thing they’re going to get is the best government service I can give them. People who donated to me for attorney general: you know what they’ve gotten? They’ve gotten the best attorney general I could be, and attorney general who stands up and fights for the people, Jimmy, whatever the issue, whatever the stakes, against anyone. I took on the big banks, I took on the big insurance companies, I took on politicians and corrupt government on behalf of the people. That’s what I did as AG, that’s what I’ll do as governor.”

It’s interesting to me that Cuomo is now acknowledging Paladino may be his opponent in a general election, which given Lazio’s anemic fundraising and his stated willingness to spend $10 million of his own money on a campaign could come to pass.

Cuomo also gave this non-answer to a question about what he thought of a bill purging a database of people stopped and frisked by NYPD officers but never charged. Paterson signed the bill Friday.

“Stop and frisk is the law of the land,” Cuomo said. “The governor signed the bill. If there are any legal challenges to the bill I will defend it as attorney general.”